(Un)Fair & (Im)Balanced

Church Archives

Each month, I like to look back over the past thirty days or so to see what people are most interested in on the blog. Though I wish I could say I understand the trends, I’m still surprised by something, […]

There has been a surprisingly positive response to the article I published yesterday called “Seven Reasons Why Young Adults Quit Church.” And as I noted, it was hardly a comprehensive list. There were several others I thought were worth noting […]

From time to time I revisit the question: why are young adults walking away from religion? Although the answer(s) vary from person to person, there are some general trends that I think apply in most cases. In the list below, […]

I’m a little bit worried that the solar flair storms either are affecting my personal judgment or the rest of the world. Given the logic of Occam’s Razor, I suppose I’m screwed. First this week, I wrote a piece about […]

Those of us who are involved in church are well-trained to invite people to worship. We find ways to bring up in conversation how great our music is, how compelling the sermons are and how children are involved in our […]

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. A million monkeys typing for a million years would eventually produce Shakespeare. And once in a blue moon, Televangelist and 700 Club head Pat Robertson and I agree on […]

There was a movement back in the 1960s that many of us have only read about, but some vividly remember. Philosophers and theologians explored what was labeled the “Death of God” movement. Interest in the subject has re-emerged particularly as […]

I’m speaking at an area assembly in Pittsburgh, Kansas, next week and the local paper called for a piece they were writing about it. Nice to get these ideas out there, and good to find attentive advocates in the media. […]

It’s nice to be able to talk publicly about this after several months. My wife, Amy, has been called to serve as the new senior minister of First Christian Church in Portland, Oregon. I’ll be on staff part-time as well, […]

Ten Antidotes to Christian ClichesThis is the final in a four-part series on the overused (and often insensitively employed) phrases that plague the Christian lexicon. Though I felt like I was offering some insight into what to do instead of offering these cliches, some asked for more specificity or clarity. So in that spirit, I tho

Nine (Final) Christian Cliches to AvoidRead article one in the series here: Ten Cliches Christians Should Never Use
Read article two in the series here: Ten More Cliches Christians Should Avoid
Read Part Four here: Ten Antidotes to Christian Cliches
The response to this series of articles has been pretty overwhelming, and genera

Ten More Christian Cliches to AvoidAfter writing up my first list of Ten Cliches Christians Should Never Use, some folks wrote me with other suggestions. After simmering on it for a while, I came up with a second list of ten to supplement the first.
And as there was some confusions from a handful of fellow Christians about the int

Ten Cliches Christians Should Never UseWe Christians have a remarkable talent for sticking our feet in our mouths. When searching the words most commonly associated with "Christian," the list ain't pretty. I think part of this can be attributed to a handful of phrases that, if stricken from our vocabulary, might make us a little more tol

Why Am I a Christian?Following the series of four "Christian Cliche" articles, I received hundreds of responses from across the spectrum. One in particular, however, stood out to me. A man who does not consider himself to be a Christian asked me why it is that I identify as a Christian, particularly given my apparent di